Snails...

The boys had so much fun watching this little guy the other day. He came out after a nice little rain and the boys just sat and watched as he inched is way around the flower pot. I love simple fun like this.

Just like His Daddy

This is what happens when you have a son that has the same sense of humor as his Dad. You get out of the shower to find spiders crawling under your door.

Rain Rain...Please Stay

For a couple of weeks we had an unusual amount of rain for part of the country. It rained HARD for several days. I have to admit that I loved it! It definitely beats the 100+ temperatures we're used to having this time of year. And there was no sitting inside wishing for the rain to go away. We got outside and had some fun. There were puddles to be splashed in, boats to race in the streams on the edge of the road and much sidewalk chalk to color with. Sidewalk chalk really is the best when it's wet.




**This may be my new favorite picture of Reece**

Butterflies

We ordered some caterpillars from Insect Lore so we could watch them turn into butterflies. The boys thought it was great. Personally I found it a little disturbing. They shake and look like they're in pain before they make their cocoons. Then when they finally come out of the cocoons it looks like they've gotten blood everywhere. I did some research and found out that they shake to ward off predators and the red stuff is actually left over stuff that helps them turn orange. But...I still think it's weird.

The boys really enjoyed watching them fly away.

Bridge Builders

The hole from the boys Dino Dig is still in the backyard. Seth and Reece decided that they needed a bridge to walk over it. You know, because it's so massive that they just might fall in and we would never see them again.
Everytime I see the boys playing together I am so thankful that they have each other. They may fight like crazy, but in the end they are never without a playmate and a friend. I'm so glad that God chose to give them each other.

Three Little Paleontologist

The boys were playing outside and I was in the house cleaning up the kitchen. They came running in and declared that they were paleontologists and had just found a dinosaur bone. They were so excited. I went to look and sure enough they had dug a big hole and hit something large and white. I didn't have the heart to tell them that around here when you dig a couple of inches you'll hit rock. Let them believe that they really found a dinosaur bone. There's no harm in that right? Well...apparently finding one at home means that there's probably one on the playground at school and if you're smart you can get all friends in on digging one up; even if it means destroying the school grounds. Okay, maybe not such a great idea.
Every paleontologist needs a popsicle after a dinosaur dig!

Making Jello Playdough

It's been quite a while since we made playdough, but the boys asked if we could the other morning and I had all the ingredients in the kitchen so we got right to it.
You can find the recipe that we used here.
We made one batch of Orange and one batch of Lime. The Orange wasn't very strongly scented, but the Lime sure was and for this pregnant woman it really made me want to eat some real limes.
Seth and Reece had a great time measuring out the ingredients and then they watched me cook it and kneed it.
When it was cooled we got out all the cookie cutters, rollers, plastic utensils that we have so that they could have fun playing and boy did they! They played and played and played, then when Wyatt got home from school he got in on the action too. I always forget how much they love playdough. It's definitely something we need to do more often.

Muffin Tin Monday

I took a break from blogging about our Muffin Tin Monday Meals, although we've still been having them every week, but I decided to start blogging them again.
This week we had watermelon, tomatoes, grapes, cheese quesadillas, and Winnie the Pooh Crackers, as well as some milk. My kids love eating their lunch out of muffin tins, so if you're looking for a fun way to have a meal with your kids you should definitely try it. There's group of mom's over at Her Cup Overfloweth and they share their Muffin Tin meals every week. Sometimes there's a theme and sometimes there isn't. It's just a fun thing to do with the kids.

Transformer Easter Eggs

This was the first year we actually attempted to dye Easter Eggs with the boys and it really went much more smoothly than I anticipated. They picked out a Transformers Kit at Target to use for eggs and on Saturday night before Easter we set about dying eggs. They had a lot of fun and it really wasn't messy. I felt bad that we were taking the focus off Christ and using Transformers, so we talked about how the Transformers are called "transformers" because they change from one thing to anther. Then I told them that Jesus wants to transform us too. He wants to change our hearts and help us not make bad choices. They thought that was pretty cool.

Church Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday, before Easter, our church had a big Easter Egg hunt at Zilker Park. It was so much fun. The boys got to play at the park before the hunt and there were TONS of eggs for them to find. We ended up getting a flat tire while we were there and then our spare had a HUGE hole in it. So, the boys got to play some more while Jerad went and got another tire with a friend.

Not sure if you can see it, but this little squirrel stole an Easter Egg before the kids got out to hunt them.

One of the girls that works in our Children's Ministry actually owns this adorable little bunny and she brought it for the kids to play with. Seth LOVED it!

Wyatt had so much fun sliding from side to side on this thing.

I love this picture

Mom's Group Easter Egg Hunt

We had four Easter Egg Hunts of the Easter Holiday (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the second one we went to at a friends house). This was our first one and it was with our Mom's Bible Study Group that we go to on Thursday Mornings. The weather was cold and windy, but the boys had a great time. The hunt was at a new park that we hadn't been to before so they loved playing while we hid the eggs. Then they had a blast hunting for the eggs.

S'mores

The boys and I had a fantastic day today. Seriously, it was one of those rare days when almost everything was perfect. We went to our Thursday morning Mom's Group Bible Study, came home and had lunch (and they ate it all with no complaints) and then I happened to see that The Last Mimsy was on HBO. We've never seen this movie, but it had just started and the boys seemed interested in it so we all sat down on the couch to watch. They didn't move a muscle the intire time. There were some intense scenes in it where I had to ask "You know this is all pretend and not real and just a movie, right?" and they would tell me "yes, we know." They never acted like they were scared or I would have turned it off.

So, since we had such a good day I told them that if they went straight down for nap I would have treat for them after dinner when daddy went to play poker. Well, they went to sleep immediately without any problems (yesterday it took me over an hour to get them to go to sleep).

Once daddy left for poker we got out everything to make a tent in the living room and then I pulled out the "treat", s'mores!! They thought they were in heaven. We've never made s'mores before and it was great. I had these little campfire skewers that I got at Target for $2 and we used those to roast the marshmellows over the flame of my gas stovetop. Once Wyatt, Seth and I had our s'mores (Reece refused to actually roast a marshmellow, he just wanted to eat them plain) we all got under the tent to eat them and then read books.

Jerad plays poker every other week and I think this is definitely going to be something we start doing on a regular basis when he's gone.

We only had a few burned marshmellows.